


Rain Enough in the Sweet Heaves

by Rogue_Bard



Category: Leverage, October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-06-26 06:38:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19762621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue_Bard/pseuds/Rogue_Bard
Summary: Penthea Sollys has a problem. She meets some people who apply... leverage.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is my imagination gone wild fic ya'll, so buckle up!
> 
> THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:  
> Firstly, there is discussion primarily in the first chapter, but also throughout the story, of grooming of a child by a predator. NOTHING HAPPENS but if this will upset you it is important to me that you are warned.
> 
> Okay, now the fun stuff:  
> If you only know October Daye: Leverage is a show about thieves who are Robin Hood by way of cons. It's one of the best things to ever be on TV and you should watch it. There is no magic in the show. This is my AU and I do what I want.  
> If you only know Leverage: October Daye is the main character of a book series about a changeling knight errant/detective. It is one of the best things I've ever read and you should read it. Penthea is the sister of one of the main characters. She has not actually shown up in text yet, pretty much everything about her is me Making Things Up.
> 
> Quick Note: There is a discrepancy in the text with regard to Penny's age in relationship to Quentin. The two year age difference mentioned in Full of Briars is correct, the five year age difference Quentin tells October in Winter Long is not. I actually put a contact form in on the website and asked, because I was dying to know. 
> 
> Okay, I think that's it! I intend to be updating weekly, but Life, so we shall see. Thanks for reading!

_“What is this cursed hand_  
_were thicker than itself with brother’s blood_  
 _Is there not rain enough in the sweet heaves_  
 _to wash it white as snow?_ ”

_Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3_

Chapter One

The train gave a cantankerous jolt as it rounded the corner, almost causing Penny to spill tea on her shirt. Taking a moment to lodge the travel mug firmly between her knees, she looked down her front carefully, wanting to find any drops in time to blot them. She couldn't show up to meet these people looking like a complete and utter mess. She needed them to believe her, to listen to her story and agree to help. Looking vulnerable might guarantee her the last part; she knew she was cute, and she could look even younger than sixteen if she tried a bit. But looking that much like a victim just wasn't worth it. There were plenty of people who made that their strategy for getting things, but it wasn't one that Penny had ever been able to bring herself to try, not since she'd learned how badly looking vulnerable could backfire.

_Maman and Papa were always so concerned about keeping them safe. It was nice, of course. It was what parents were supposed to do. And if they weren't going to be there in person, than making sure that the people who were there took good care of them was of course very important. But when it came down to it, Penny had always felt like the one who took care of her the most was Quentin. He was always there, unlike their parents, or the servants who were rotated out on a regular basis._

_Always there, until one day their parents told them that he had to leave for his fosterage. That he needed to learn. That it would keep him safe. Penny had sobbed and clung to him, wailing that it wasn't fair. And it wasn't. But wanting fairness didn't make them let him stay. For the next month Penny refused to speak to anyone, not even the animals around the palace. Now she sometimes wondered if that had been part of what happened next. If she had only behaved herself, maybe- but that wasn’t fair to her parents, and even if they weren’t going to be fair, she was determined to be._

_There had been threats to her family before, and all that had happened was increases of the guards patrolling the corridors outside Penny and Quentin’s rooms. This time, six months after Quentin was sent away, Penny found herself instructed to pack. The knowe in Toronto was becoming hazardous, they told her. They just wanted to keep her safe. A quick series of Tuatha portals later, and she found herself in the Duchy of Bridgeport, just outside of the mortal city of Salem. Massachusetts wasn't so far from Toronto, but Penny knew better than to expect visits. That wasn't how blind fosterage worked, and the fosterage must by blind. For her safety, of course._

_Penny had wished that just once people would ask her if she cared about her safety, but they never asked her opinion about anything. In Salem, it was because she was young and in the way, and that at least she could understand. No one sent ten year-olds into fosterage, it just wasn't done, and so no one quite knew what to do with her. After some consultation she was made a page, but the next youngest page was fourteen, so none of them wanted a little kid bothering them. After months of avoiding talking to people, it felt strange to have the shoe on the other foot. At least at home, she wasn't ignored entirely._

_When Count Edrenya had taken an interest in her, she had been so delighted to just not feel alone anymore. He wanted to hear about her problems, and he asked her opinion on things. Real, adult things; not just silly stuff like whether or not they should serve plum tarts again. He'd treated her like a grown-up, always telling her how mature she was for her age, and in turn she had done her best to act grown up, done her best to please him and keep him interested in talking to her._

_She recognized it now, of course; saw how he'd manipulated her. But at the time it had just felt nice, to be important in someone's eyes._

_They had never found out if he knew exactly who her parents were, or if he just knew that for her to be on a blind fosterage they must be someone important. So much of magic was centered in who you were, and in who you were loyal to. It was why children stayed with their parents when they were young, why changelings had to be taken to Faerie by their magical parent. If they were left on their own, who knew what their magic might turn into? Penny's magic was still trying to figure itself out. She had lessons on occasion, of course, sometimes even with the Duchess herself. But the Count had been there almost every day, talking to her, making her laugh, coaxing her to try something new with her illusions._

_And so what if he stood oddly close to her sometimes, so what if his hands lingered as he turned her wrist in a specific motion? He was going to help her learn so much, so fast, that her parents would see she could look after herself. If she was good enough, they would just have to see it, and let her come home._

_It went on for several months, their lessons shifting to more remote parts of the grounds, and the touches lingering for longer. One morning they were in a back courtyard, after dawn, when most of the knowe was asleep. Many of their meetings were at odd hours, but it never troubled Penny. The Count was a busy, important man. She was fortunate that he carved out any time to spend with her at all. He tugged her against him as he corrected her form, and it almost reminded Penny of when Quentin would hug her before they went to sleep. No one had hugged her since she left home, and she missed it desperately._

_Across the courtyard, someone had pointedly cleared their throat. As soon as the sounds reached them, the Count took a step back from her. They both looked over to find the under-Chatelaine, an odd mixed fae of some sort who Penny had run into on various occasions as she did her page work. The woman was tapping at the spectacles perched on her nose, and Penny saw that they glittered with magic._

_"What exactly do you think you're doing?" She sounded so put out that Penny instinctively shrunk back against the Count. What had she done wrong? To her surprise, the Count stepped away again, rather than offering comfort as he had in the past. When he spoke he sounded aloof and distant, like the court nobles who Penny always liked the least. He had never sounded like that before, especially not when he spoke to her._

_"I'm sure you have work to be seeing to, do you not, Miss Rosen?" He clearly intended for her to quell from both his tone and from the reminder that he outranked her, an untitled daughter of equally humble parents. But it seemed the under-Chatelaine was made of sterner stuff than that._

_"My work is to see to the interests of Her Grace. As I am doing now. Penthea, come here please." Her tone was calm, but it left no room for argument. Penny began to cross the courtyard before she fully realized, only to stop when Count Edrenya grabbed her arm._

_"I don't know what right you think you have, but-" Even as he spoke, Penny could feel his magic gathering. She was used to it by now, the subtle hint of lemon in the air and the feeling of pressure in her chest. But this time the pressure clawed like a vice. Penny tried to twist away, but was unable to remove herself from his grip. As his nails dug into her arm she cried out. There was shouting around her, but she couldn't understand any of it. Everything hurt, and someone was screaming. Whatever was happening here, she didn't like it, she wanted to leave, she wanted her parents, her brother. Where were they?_

_At once the pressure ceased, both in her arm and in her chest, as the Count fell to the ground. A Tuatha in guard's livery stood behind him, holding a small dagger. Across the courtyard, the Duchess was now standing with the under-chatelaine and a few other guards and staff. Penny felt suddenly alone, as though she would never be whole again. She started shaking and fell to her knees, hugging her arms around herself. An Elylon came forward and ran a hand across her forehead, and then there was nothing._

_When she awoke, she was in her room, and people were speaking quietly. They were clearly agitated, displeased. What had she done wrong? Why were they angry with her? Penny started shaking again. She heard a voice exclaim "Well fine then, if that's what they want!" The voice seemed to come towards her as it spoke, and she struggled to sit up and answer them._

_Arms wrapped around her, and a feeling a magical warmth surged, along with a pressure. Rather than constricting and hurting her as she remembered, this pressure just felt solid. It didn't force itself into her space, but it gave her something sturdy to lean against. She felt like she had been adrift, lost at sea, and she clung like to the person hugging her like they were a life raft. As she buried her face in the person's hair, she was overwhelmed by a smell of salt and lilacs._

_She sat there for what felt like hours, her shakes slowly ceasing. When at last she picked her head up, she realized she had been crying. Sniffling, she looked up into the face of the woman who had been holding her. It was the under-chatelaine, who now smiled softly and stroked a hand through Penny's hair._

_"How are you feeling?" she asked._

_Penny took stock. She was feeling- actually so much better. Tensions that she hadn't known she had been holding felt eased. She felt-_

_"Solid", she said, "Like I'm not going to drift away again. I- does that make sense?"_

_"It does, yes. More than you know. I'm Talia, by the way. We haven't been properly introduced. How much do you know about what happened?" the woman asked, drawing her lower lip up to worry it between her teeth as she finished speaking._

_"I'm not sure. The Count- we were just training, but then he got so angry, and it hurt, and I- I'm not sure?" Thinking back to the events in the courtyard brought only a mass of confusion._

_"Alright. Um. Have you ever heard of loyalty magic?" Talia asked her, drawing away as she spoke, so that she was no longer in contact with Penny. Penny gave a small, involuntary whimper at the loss, startling herself. She'd learned to have far more dignity than that, at the high court!_

_"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Talia said. "I feel like you should have your own space, while I explain this. But if it starts to hurt, let me know, okay?" Penny nodded, her confusion growing._

_"Loyalty magic exists in the bonds we have with people who owe use fealty and service, or who we owe it to. It's what knights swear oaths on. You've seen that, yes?" Again Penny nodded. "Well, the most basic form of loyalty magic exists between children and their parents. And you- sweetie, you're very young. You shouldn't be away from your parents, not yet." And now Penny had to stop her. She couldn't say things like that, things that implied the High King and Queen were wrong about something like this._

_"It's fine. It was for the best, and I'm learning so much more magic now, it's really much safer."_

_"No, sweetie. It isn't." Talia's voice was still gentle, but it was also firm. "Your magic wanted to help connect you to someone close to you, but when it reached out for your parents, they weren't there anymore. It happens sometimes. And when it does, it's possible for people to- to take advantage." Later, Penny would get the full story. Later, she would learn what things like 'grooming' and 'predatory' meant. Later, she would learn how much control someone who wasn't family could have through someone's loyalty magic, if they weren't hampered by things like morals and decency. At the time, she still didn't understand._

_"But- but the Count was helping me. He was, until things got-" And here Penny had to stop, because she didn't really know what had happened, but she did know that something dramatic had changed._

_"He was bending you magic. He was doing it slowly, but that's what he was doing. I was out examining the wards, and I saw how he was changing the connections between you. It wasn’t natural. It wasn't right. And when he saw that I knew, he tried to push things. He tore your loyalty bonds free. That's what hurt you." Talia was clearly angry about this, but not angry with Penny, so that was alright._

_"But it got fixed. I don't hurt anymore." Penny said. That at least, she was sure of. And she was sure of precious little right now. Except here Talia went again, worrying at her lip._

_"It's not- It's not 'fixed', exactly. 'Fixed' would mean that things were back how they were before. When he tore the bonds to your parents, he made it so they wouldn't come back together, not without a lot of outside help." Outside help. It didn't take Penny long to piece together, and she smiled broadly._

_"That means I can go home, right? I need to be with Maman and Papa for things to be right again, so I get to go home?" She had been so hopeful. Talia sighed._

_"That would work, yes. But Her Grace contacted your parents, told them that there was a problem, that they needed to either come here, or take you home, and they've said it's too dangerous. They entrusted your care to the Duchess, and they've said they are confident she can take care of things." Talia sighed as Penny's face fell._

_"But then how did I get better?" She asked in a small voice. Talia blushed._

_"I- may have lost my temper. You woke up, and you were still hurt, and Her Grace said your parents weren't coming. So I bonded you into my family. There wasn't time, and so I did it without your permission, and I am dearly sorry for that. But I swear, by root and branch and thorn and tree, that I will never seek to use this bond to hurt you. Or in any way at all, without your permission." Penny's eyes widened, feeling the weight of the vow. She looked at Talia, searchingly, and Talia met her gaze, looking calm and level and a bit shy. She reminded Penny, in that moment, of Quentin. And that was what settled it for her, really._

_She nodded once, firmly. "Thank you" she said, smiling softly. Talia's eyes widened, and she gave an answering smile of her own. "Thank_ you _"._

Things were better after that. After some cajoling, the Duchess allowed Penny to move in with Tal, who lived in her own small house in the mortal world. Tal got papers saying Penny was her cousin, and enrolled her in school. In her free time she acted as Tal's assistant, learning about the running of a knowe. But she also made friends, and who cared that they were all mortal? She was just Penny to them, Penny Rosen, since of course she couldn't be Penthea Sollys here. They wanted to be her friends because they liked her, not because she was a princess. It was nice. And the magic Tal did worked, it had been working for years.

Only now, word had come to the Kingdom of Early Landings about the conclave held in the Western coast of the Westlands. There was a cure for elf-shot, and it was available for distribution. Already, there were those in the court saying that Count Edrenya should be woken, since he had not received a proper trial when the guard put the dagger in his shoulder, severing the connection to Penny in the only way the Duchess could think of, on short notice. They didn’t know the whole story, few people did, because the Duchess had wanted to protect Penny’s privacy.

But it didn’t matter now. He would be back. He would be back, and she was terrified. Nothing happened fast in Faerie, it had been weeks since the conversations had started. But in those weeks Penny had felt herself shrink smaller and smaller. Tal had noticed, of course. She tried to comfort her, and promised that she would do everything she could to prevent the Count from waking.

Tal's father, Penny's Uncle Marc, had spent a week in his workshop, and come out with an ivory pendant on a delicate chain. All she need to do was touch it, and ask to come home, and it would take her away. Just in case, he said. Just in case.

But 'in case' wasn't enough. She needed something, needed to be sure. She couldn't hide behind others, even her adopted family. She was the Princess of the Westlands, and she could solve her own problems. And as Maman would say, solving a problem didn't mean you had to do it yourself. Sometimes it meant delegating. As the train pulled into the Boston station, Penny collected her things. She'd heard about these people from her human friends. They helped people solve problems. People came to them when they were in a tight fix, and they provided... leverage.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, it's the Leverage crew! And me, making a ton of shit up!

"Damnit Hardison!" Eliot swore under his breath as he stalked around the kitchen. They were out of paprika. Again. He didn't care what kind of magic bullshit the man was trying to craft; Hardison needed to stay away from his spices. There was a time when folks held a Hob's kitchen sacred, and it still grated occasionally that no one wanted to hold to such things now.

If his dad's view of things was anything to go by, it grated even more when you were full-blood Hob, so Eliot probably wasn't missing much in that respect. He didn't think he was missing much at all, being away from home. Dad called it his walkabout, talked about quarter-life crises and how Hob's were supposed to be too stable to play faerie bride. Eliot had informed him that both of his partners were part of Faerie, and then left before any slandering of changelings could start. He'd try talking things out again in a few years, once Dad had some time to cool off. It wasn’t like the old man was going anywhere.

It also wasn't that his father had a problem with changelings, on spec. Hobs were part of the hardworking, practical set in Faerie, and a lot of changelings were also hard working and practical. But there was working with folk, and then there was taking them to bed. His father had dealt with his own share of judgmental gossip when he'd taken up with a bridge troll, and he didn't want the same for his son. It didn't help that of the pair of them, only Hardison was a 'proper' changeling. Parker was one of the lost ones; a quarter-blood who never knew about faerie at all, until Sophie commented on her features being just a little too sharp. Eliot still wondered if Archie had known, but the man was human, and Eliot wasn't about to open up the barrel of trouble he would get by asking. She barely had any magic, but she had always known she wasn't meant to be tethered to the earth, so in some ways the Tuatha blood did shine through.

Hardison had done everything right by Faerie, chosen them and come away from the human world. But faerie had not done right by him, and once he had been brought over to the Summerlands, he rarely saw his mother. She had an exciting, immortal life, and a child who would die in a mere century was nothing but a temporary distraction, to be put aside when she was bored of him. Without Nana, who took in all manner of strays in her small corner of the Sumerlands, he might not have survived. But survive he had, and since faerie didn't want him, he decided he didn't want them, either. He went back to the human world, and found computers; something for the crafty, Coblynau part of his brain to dig into. He would make himself into something better than they ever could have made him, build a whole world laced with steel and lightening.

Eliot was so proud of the two of them. They were amazing, and strong, and bright, and he wanted to protect them from anything in the world that tried to dull their shine. He remembered when Nate had tried to move them all out to Portland with a shudder. Sophie had heard things about Silences, and so she took him with her to scope it out. They had returned after barely three days, and Sophie set to work talking Nate out of the whole thing. Boston would be fine, they just needed to lay low for a few months, and find a new building to take over.

And quietly, carefully, he and Sophie started making a plan to take care of things. It was harder, with just the two of them, but Nate could never learn about Faerie, and they weren't letting Hardison and Parker within a hundred miles of that place, not after what they’d seen. It had proved a tough nut to crack; they had stuck almost exclusively to the mortal world for reasons. He and Sophie had still been corresponding about the best course of action while she and Nate took their 'retirement'. Then all of a sudden, their sources said that it wouldn't be a problem anymore. A changeling Knight from down in Mists had come and set a cat among the pigeons (both literally and figuratively, if you believed all the reports), and the prior rulers were back on the throne. It was a pretty nice place to visit now, or so folks said.

As Eliot contemplated alternative spicing mixtures for the tri-tip, there was a knock at the door. About fifteen seconds later the knock repeated. Eliot started towards the door- then stopped. The alarm hadn't chimed. The alarm that Hardison had crafted, to remind himself and Eliot to put on their human faces when mortals were nearby. Eliot looked at the small, decorative wooden box that sat on the hall table, ornate, lovely,- and silent. But that could mean anything, perhaps a Changeling working for the delivery company? Pulling on a human disguise anyway, Eliot opened the door.

"Yes?" he asked, letting his tone of vague disinterest distract from how he was assessing the girl before him. Young, but since she was wrapped in an illusion that didn't necessarily mean anything. Nervous and exhausted looking, which was fairly typical when people came looking for them. But people from faerie didn't typically come looking. She stood there, staring at him in silence. "Can I help you?" He prompted again.

"I'm sorry, this was a mistake, I should go." she said in a rush, turning to head back down the hallway, which had been empty when she walked down it. She jumped at Parker's sudden appearance. Parker looked at her, head cocked, eyes piercing. Sophie had taught her how to pull one up, but Parker still never bothered with a human disguise unless a con required it. Her bare face had features that a human would call 'sharp', though those of fae blood tended to know instantly what they were dealing with.

"I think you should stay." Parker said to the girl, before looking over her head to Eliot. "She's going to come in. Will you make some cocoa?" Eliot didn't move. For all the world he looked as relaxed as ever, but Parker would be able to notice that he'd tensed. It was funny. In the few encounters the team had had with the Fae, Parker never cared what anyone thought of her. Hardison cared a lot, and pretended not to, but Parker genuinely didn't seem to mind. The one who cared the most was Eliot. There were some things that made it easy to get a read on a person, and if they were going to disrespect his friends, he really couldn't be bothered with them. So he waited, waited to see what this girl would do when confronted with a thin-blooded changeling who was giving orders.

"That's very nice of you, but you really don't need to bother," she said to Parker. She spoke directly to Parker, and genuinely seemed like she didn't want to make trouble, when so many other Fae couldn't see any other way to treat Changelings than as 'the help'. Maybe this would be alright, after all.

"It's not a bother." Eliot said, turning and going back into the kitchen, trusting Parker to get the girl into the dining room and seated. By now, Hardison was poking his head out of his computer grotto. "There's some Sidhe girl at the door. Parker says we're hearing her out." Hardison's face had clouded at the first part, but the second made him raise his eyebrows before retreating briefly into the grotto, returning with one of his tablets. He followed Eliot to the kitchen.

"What are you doing, then? Aren't we supposed to be listening?" Hardison asked, not looking up as he tapped on his screen, probably using the security cameras to get a look at their guest.

"Parker wants cocoa, so that's what we're having." Eliot said wryly. Sophie thought it was funny, that when she and Nate left, the one Nate had 'left in charge' was the most human of the three. Eliot thought it was perfect. Parker saw things in ways they didn't, more human ways. She may have been odd, but it was, by and large, a human oddness. She hadn't understood people, when the team first came together, and as Nate helped her build that understanding, his own humanity shaped her views. She looked at people, and at what they needed in the here and now, and she held it as true. And that truth was why Eliot and Hardison would follow where she led. Well, unless she was diving off buildings. Then it was up for debate.

As Eliot started blending the sugar and cocoa powder, Parker brought the girl in to sit at the table, positioning her were Eliot would be able to see her clearly over the breakfast bar, and where Parker herself could sit across the table and have Eliot watch her back. Hardison sat at one end of the table; not beside Parker, lest the client feel they were being ganged up on, and not between the client and the door. This part, at least, was normal for the routine they had with their clients.

"If you want our help, I think you can drop the mask, yeah?" Hardison said, an order phrased as a question. Yep, here came the parts that weren’t routine, and Hardison was charging at the issue with the chip on his shoulder, and all the tact of a boot to the head. He hadn't bothered to pull on a human disguise for himself, since Eliot had told him their guest was Sidhe. Without it, his features clearly marked him as a changeling. This was a test, then; see if she would do what he said, or insist that Eliot be the one giving orders. It was the same thing Eliot had done in the hall, when he waited to see how the girl reacted to Parker, but it had been far less blatant then. Hardison was being rude on purpose, and he prepared himself to smooth things over when the girl to took offense. Instead she blushed, dropping her illusion neatly with a muttered apology.

She was pureblood Daoine Sidhe, that was clear now. Still growing into the fullness of her kind's staggering beauty, but no one could mistake how stunning she would be in a few years. Her illusion's hair was a brightly dyed lavender, which faded to silvery blonde when she dropped it, though the lavender remained at the tips. Eliot had to smile; most teenagers gifted with illusions didn't bother with non-magical modification of their looks. Her sharply pointed ears poked through her hair, and her features gained an edge as well, drawing attention to the slight trembling in her jaw. Eliot dropped his own illusion, but she hardly seemed to notice. All of her attention seemed to be focusing on Parker, and the girl’s nervousness seemed to lessen when she looked at her. Perhaps that made sense; clearly the most human of the lot of them, Parker looked like she would be the easiest to lay out with magic. Of course, the girl would have to catch her first.

"So," Parker began, raising one fine eyebrow, "What brings you here?" The girl worried at her lip, turning her focus from Parker to look at each of them in turn. Now she saw Eliot without his mask, and as she looked from him to Hardison, she seemed to hunch in on herself even more. This felt wrong. Daoine Sidhe were proud, obnoxiously so, and especially with Fae they considered to be lesser. This girl should be ordering them to help her, not cringing from a mixed Hob and a couple of changelings. Taking a deep breath and visibly drawing herself together, the girl began speaking.

"I go to public school, up in Salem?" she said it like a question, and didn't continue speaking until Parker nodded. "Some of the kids there, they said there were people down in Boston who could help you, when no one else could. But I didn't think- This isn't what I thought it was going to be. I'm sorry, I should go."

She pushed her chair back and stood abruptly, but before she could finish turning towards the door, Hardison asked, evenly, and without looking up from his tablet, "And what did you think it was going to be, Your Highness?" Eliot and Parker both looked at him sharply, but he ignored them, waiting a beat before looking up at the girl with raised eyebrows. Her eyes had widened with horror, and she started shaking her head and slowly backing towards the door.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't-" she stuttered, words coming between gasps as she started hyperventilating. At that he came around the edge of the counter, jerking his head over his shoulder and telling Parker to stir the cocoa. He came to stand in front of her as the girl started to lean against the wall for support, visibly trying to pull herself back from her panic attack. It wasn't working, and as Eliot reached out to comfort her, she flinched back violently. He backed off immediately, taking several steps away while still making sure that he was the closest of the three of them, in case she tried to lash out with magic.

"Okay, he's not gonna touch you, no one is. Can you breathe for me? Deep breath, there you go." Parker spoke from where she stood by the stove, not moving, just slowly, calmly channeling Sophie, until the girl stopped her hyperventilating, if not her shaking. Still leaning heavily against the wall, she looked at Hardison with wide eyes.

"What do you want?" she asked, clearly afraid of what the answer was going to be.

"What? No, I- Listen, it's not like that." Hardison stumbled over his words, clearly unhappy that he had scared her so much. Eliot smiled wryly. Hardison was a kind person, but he was so used to having to be on the defensive with the Fae, he forgot sometimes that he had backup now, that he didn't have to hide behind walls of knowledge gathered through means most Fae never even bothered to explore. "I just wanted to know who was walking through our door, that's all. But I take it that's not why you came to see us?" She shook her head.

"I-I didn't think you'd be Fae. Like I said, I heard about you at school, and I thought, if you were human-" She ducked her head, looking up through the veil of silver hair as she said "If your human, it wouldn't be breaking the Law to ask." Eliot and Hardison both drew in a breath, hearing the capitalization in her speech. Parker simply tilted her head, looking at the girl with intrigue.

"So, Highness," Parker asked, and again the girl flinched from the title, "who is it you need dead?"

The girl looked at them each in turn, gaze searching. She must have found what she was looking for, because she took a deep breath and dropped back into the wooden dining chair before beginning her story.

When she was done explaining, Parker brought over a series of mugs from the counter. It was a mark on how distracted Eliot had been, that he'd actually forgotten there was something on the stove. Thanks to some of Hardison's handiwork, they knew when prospective clients lied to them. This girl hadn't event tried to shade the truth, even regarding things she was clearly ashamed of. Not that she should be. Everyone was an idiot when they were ten years old, and if trusting an adult was the worst that could be said of a kid, they were doing pretty darn well.

Eliot had heard about the whole 'cure for elf shot' thing, since it was a large part of why he and Sophie were no longer looking for a way to ruin the King of Silences. He'd dismissed it as irrelevant, since they rarely dealt with the rest of Faerie. The idea that some folks were going to be awakened who probably shouldn't be hadn't occurred to him- and wasn't that a sign that he'd taken a few too many steps back from Fae politics?

The girl- she'd still avoided introducing herself, even though Hardison clearly knew who she was- sipped at her cocoa. Eliot idly wondered which of the royal families she was related to. Probably somewhere like Endless Skies, if they were sending her out east for a fosterage. Bridgeford wasn't exactly a well-connected Duchy, as far as Eliot knew, and he did try to be at least a little aware of the local goings on. He hadn't heard about this, but then six years ago they'd only just arrived on Boston, and besides, it sounded like the Duchess has worked to keep it quiet.

Even with killing the Count being out of the question, there were options. The girl wanted to feel safe, and if Parker and Hardison's expressions were anything to go by, they too were on board with helping her. But their normal cons wouldn't work in the Summerlands, not without drawing attention they couldn't afford. That left magic, and with the girl's parents unwilling to intervene-

"Alright," Eliot said, drawing everyone's gaze towards him. "We need to speak to your guardian." When the girl started to protest, he held up a hand. "There's a spell that can protect you, but she'll need to be a part of it. Do you think she'd agree?"

The girl looked confused for a moment. "Of course, if it'll help. But-" she turned to look at Hardison. "I'm a blind foster. She doesn't know, and you can't tell her, please, you can't-"

"Hey, no. Like I said, it isn't like that. You don't want her to know, and it's not relevant to us helping you, so we won't tell her." Hardison said. Over the course of her story, he'd clearly shifted to being on this girl's side entirely, whoever she was. That was good. If they were going to have to get involved in local Fae politics eventually, it would be good if Hardison remembered that not all pure-bloods were stuck up assholes.

The girl looked to Parker for confirmation, and at her nod, she said "Okay, we can talk to her. Should I call her and have her come here, or-"

"Nah, that's all good." Hardison said, moving to stand. "It's time for us to take a little ride in Lucielle."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has come together faster than pretty much anything I've written before, so I'm just going to post chapters as they get edited.

When Penny had said she was going out for the day, Tal had assumed she meant to the mall or something. Which would have been normal, if it hadn't been for the news they had gotten the month before. The possibility of Count Edrenya being awakened from his slumber was clearly terrifying to Penny, and Tal was at a loss for what to do about it. She heard the rumblings around the knowe; now that it was an option, people wanted to know the full story of what had gone on. Duchess Lyria had kept most of the details private, and at the time Tal had been grateful. Penny had enough to deal with, and it certainly wouldn't do to crow her vulnerability from the rooftops. Because even though Tal had been careful to avoid mentioning it, back in those early days, the girl had still been vulnerable. Magic or not, it took time to adjust and feel bonded to anyone, especially people you were supposed to see as family.

Added to that, Tal's family was very small, being just herself and her father. A larger family, or one with more fealty connections to others, would have been a better choice. The Duchess would have been a better choice. But no one had been willing to do anything other than wring their hands about vague requests for assistance hadn't brought Penny's parents from wherever they lived. The Duchess had insisted that anything more specific would be less than politic. Penny screamed from nightmares, and the woman was worried about politics. After three days of that nonsense, Tal had had enough. Politics were never more important than a hurting child.

"And that," the Duchess had told her later, "Is why you should never be involved in court intrigues. You're too emotional for your own good." Left unsaid was that this was caused by the mercurial nature of the sea.

Duchess Lyria had stood by her father and given him a home when he showed up at her gates with a half-siren daughter and a group of angry Undersea fae behind him, and for that, Tal would always be grateful. Sheltering them, even though her father sworn to the Duchess and it was her duty, had been politically costly. It was something Tal was still trying to pay back, trying to prove that defending her and giving her a home had not been a mistake. 

The whole mess of her own family circumstances made situations like the one with Penny infinitely more complex. It wasn't that she would have done things differently, given the option. But it made life difficult now, because it meant that she had very little ground to stand on when she protested that Count Edrenya should remain sleeping. A better guardian would have had allies outside of the knowe, but she’d never been good at that. Helping keep the place that had given her a home running smoothly was all she wanted, and since it was a useful skill set for a noble daughter, usually it was enough. Usually, but not now.

Since talk had first began of waking the Count, Penny had regressed somewhat dramatically. She was sixteen now, and as attached to her freedom as any girl her age, especially one who spent much of her time around mortals. Some days she would choose to stay out all through the daylight, rather than coming home right after school to sleep, and Tal would get just a quick text of notification. There were rules of course, days when Penny had responsibilities at the knowe. But overall she was growing into a responsible and carefree young woman. The last month had changed that. Penny began coming home directly from school, and stayed away from the knowe whenever she could. When she was required to be there, she followed Tal around like a shadow, clearly desperate to not be left alone in those halls. It made Tal so angry. Penny had made such progress in the last five years, it was horrible watching it being undone now.

The sound of the front door brought Tal out of her musings.

"Tal, I'm home!" Penny called up the stairs. After a moment she continued "I brought company."

Tal paused on the stairs. "Company-company?" she said, preparing to throw on a human disguise.

"I mean, you should probably wear pants." Penny replied, the smile easy to hear in her voice.

"Pants are for the weak." Tal retorted, continuing down the stairs. It was a relief to hear Penny making a joke, even a small one. The last month had been wearing on all of them, and it would do them good to laugh about something. 

Reaching the front hall, Tal stopped in surprise. When Penny confirmed that their guests were of Faerie, she'd expected a couple of Penny's friends from among the knowe's pages. Instead, her charge stood there with a trio of adults, none of whom Tal had ever seen before. When introductions did not seem forthcoming, Tal asked "So I take it you weren't out at the mall?"

The shorter man, who looked to be part Hob, frowned at this, as though in question, so Tal continued. "It's this place where they make clothes out of things besides denim and flannel. I'm not sure you've heard of it." This had the desired affect of startling a giggle out of Penny, as well as throwing one of the guests slightly off balance. The other two laughed along with her, and they all followed her as she gestured towards the living room proper and headed in to sit.

"So... How can I help you?" Tal asked. It wasn't terribly unusual for people, especially changelings or mixed bloods, to come to her if they had questions for the Duchess. She was the only one in the main leadership of the knowe who lived in the mortal world, making her easier and less intimidating to ask. But such requests didn't go through Penny, and given recent circumstances, Tal found that she didn't like the idea of strange fae approaching her girl in any case.

"It's not that," Penny said. She was chewing on her lip, something she had been far to versed in court etiquette to entertain when she first came into Tal's care. Seeing Penny pick up some of Tal's little habits would always make her smile, though she doubted that the girl's parents would thank her for it. "I asked them for help. I wanted to feel safe, you know? And I- Some kids at my school said- but I didn't know they were, you know, like us, and-" here Penny's stuttering explanation came to a halt.

Tal took a moment to process the implications of what Penny had said. If she hadn't thought these people were Fae until she'd met them, why had she thought they could help keep her safe from the Count? If Penny's position as a blind foster that the Duchess was honor-bound to look after wasn't enough, what could- Realization hit Tal, and her eyes widened. Penny looked as though she was about to cry, but stubbornly continued to hold Tal’s gaze.

Tal swiftly crossed the living room and pulled the girl into her arms. She had known that fright was making her desperate, but she'd had no idea things had gotten this bad. Penny sagged against her, and Tal wished that she hadn't grown so much in the last year. It used to be that Tal could tuck the girl under her chin and hold her safe from the rest of the world.

Now, as Penny laid her head on her guardian's shoulder, Tal looked over her at the three strangers in her living room. Tuning her mind to the house wards and preparing to call them up if need be, she asked "So, what exactly is it that led a bunch of mortal high-schoolers to believe that you were the folks to see if you wanted to take out a hit on someone?" in a very mild tone. The responses were telling.

The blonde thin-blood looked slightly surprised, as though she hadn't realized the nature of what Penny had intended to ask. The flannel-wearing Hob looked defensive, and for a moment his presence seemed to get larger, and she turned slightly, putting herself between him and Penny, worried that the man was going to hit her. The tall, black changeling wasn't looking at her at all. He stood a bit behind and to the side of the Hob, where he could be easily defended, and looked around the house curiously.

"I've never seen wards like this," he said, reaching out into the air, as though to stroke something that none of them could see.

"They're built in," she replied. If he wasn't going to answer the question that was one thing, but this was an odd way to change the subject, and she wanted to see where he meant to take this.

"Of course they are, built-in's easy. But they, like" he continued stroking the air "They resonate or something. That's not how built in wards are supposed to be." At least he didn't sound judgmental about it.

Lots of people wanted Coblynau to build and maintain their wards. It was one of Tal's main jobs at the knowe. But she had never been able to make the magic work the way her father did. When it came down to it, she was her mother's daughter, even when she was doing the work of her father's people. So she built walls and crafted wards, but she spun them out of song.

"Oh yes, I just nat-20 those performance checks." she said brightly. This had become her stock answer, because it confused people, but very few were willing to admit to their confusion. Instead they simply nodded and changed the subject, and never brought up how strange she was again. This man, it seemed, was different.

"Every party needs a bard." he said, grinning broadly.

"Oh I like you!" Tal said automatically, then caught herself. "So... You guys _don't_ take out hits on people, right?" she asked tentatively.

"No!" they all said, with varying levels of seriousness and annoyance.

"Well thank Oberon for that." She stepped away from Penny's embrace and made her way to sit in one of the armchairs, steering Penny to the other so that the guests could take the couch. "Well then," she continued once they were seated, "what is it you do, exactly?"

The two men exchanged wary glances, but the blonde calmly replied, "That's not important. What we do isn't magic, so it's not what we will be doing here, because magic is exactly what you need. Eliot's got a plan." she turned to the Hob expectantly.

"Eliot's not planning anything until he gets an introduction." the man replied with slight annoyance.

"Oh, I'm sorry! That's rude of me. This is Talia Rosen, under-chatelaine of the Duchy of Bridgeford. Tal, this is Parker, Eliot, and Hardison." Penny said, adding, "They help people when people like the police can't, _that's_ what my friends at school said."

"Alright," Tal said, cautiously. She spoke first to Penny. "We're still talking about this later, don't think we aren't." She turned her gaze from her charge to the guests. "But I assume you wouldn't have come here if you didn't have some idea as to how to help?" she asked.

The Hob- Eliot- nodded. "I think so, yeah. Saw a lot of loyalty magic, back- working my old job." If he wasn't going to specify than she wasn't going to ask, at least not yet. "There's ways, more heavily ritualized than what you did before. But for it to work you need two anchors."

"I can ask my father-" Eliot cut her off with a check of his head.

"No, that's the thing. It's got to be a member of her family, blood family. A parent would be best." He looked at them questioningly. Penny shook her head.

"I can't. There’s a lot of reasons, and I’m not going to explain right no," she nodded in Tal's direction for a second. "I just can't."

"Alright," he said. They accepted that very easily, far more easily than Tal ever had. Oh, she knew the Duchess had been vague about the issue when she contacted them all those years ago. But she'd told them that their child was hurt, and they hadn't come. Penny had forgiven them as a matter of course and that was her choice, but Tal didn’t have to forgive anyone. The fact that they agreed like this implied either that Penny hadn't told them the full story, which was unlikely, if she wanted their help, or that they knew who her parents were. That was a breech of fosterage etiquette, and one Tal had been very careful to stay away from. Mostly because she knew that once she had an address, she would be hard pressed to stop herself from giving them a piece of her mind. Some people needed punching, and her dad did enough smithing that she had upper body strength to spare.

"If your parent's won't work, you have siblings, right?" Oh, these people definitely knew who her parents were. Very interesting.

"I'm not supposed to see him, I'm not supposed to even know where he is." Penny said warily.

"Oh that's fine." Hardison said, pulling the tablet from his satchel, "I can figure that out, just give me a-" Parker held up her hand.

"She said she wasn't _supposed_ to know. Not that she doesn't." She turned to Penny. "You think he'd help? If you asked?"

"Of course." Penny replied, automatically. Tal had to smile. No matter what complicated feelings she may have about Penny's parents, the girl talked about her brother often enough. Tal liked him without even having met him, because Penny never doubted that he loved her. "But I don't want to put him in danger. We're separated for a reason, going to see him could-"

"That we can take care of," Hardison said confidently. "Give me five minutes, and you can be whoever we need you to be. Tell people here you're going camping or something. No one has to know you got on a plane."

"People will know as soon as we show up at whatever knowe he's fostered to." Tal pointed out. She was still in favor of asking him for help, but Penny was right that they needed to be careful.

"Oh, um. That shouldn't be a problem?" Penny said quietly. Tal turned to look at her. "He lives in the mortal world, like I do."

"So when you say you aren't supposed to know, you mean you have an address?" Eliot asked in bemusement.

"It's not against the rules to know!" Penny said defensively. "It's just against the rules to do anything about it. Which this would be. Which is why we can't. Isn't there something else we can try?"

"Oh, we'll be doing something else." Parker said, confidently. "But doing both is better." The group turned their attention to her. "Eliot's spell will protect you from him. But it'll be even better if we can stop them from wanting to wake them in the first place. I don't think we've ever run a con on someone who was asleep before." She turned to her partners. "What do you think, guys? Up for stealing a Count?"

"It's not stealing if he's still there." Eliot grumbled.

"Yeah, but 'stealing a Count's reputation' doesn't have the same ring to it." Hardison replied, already tapping at his tablet again.

Penny and Tal stared at them. "You- you can't just steal someone's reputation." Tal protested, "Not when they're a noble. People don't know about what he's really like, they won't believe-" The trio started to laugh.

"That's exactly what we do." Parker said confidently. "We don't kill people, that's wrong, and illegal. We just, you know, ruin them. Professionally. We're really good at it." She sounded so confident and matter of fact that Tal found she couldn't doubt her.

"Okay then." she said, slowly, managing to give the two words about a dozen syllables between them. She really had two choices here. She could trust that these people knew what they were talking about, and do her part in the spell side of things, or she could refuse all help that was being offered. And while she may find these people somewhat odd and unsettling, Tal knew that she was willing to try anything, in order to keep Penny safe. She turned to Eliot. "What do I need to know about this spell?"


	4. Chapter 4

Penny looked over Tal, out the window of the plane. Tal had downed a small bottle like a shot almost as soon as they got to their seats and had been sleeping against the bulkhead ever since. Apparently, Coblynau liked the ground, Sirens liked the sea, and being on a plane was just a recipe for nausea and misery for her. Sleeping the flight away was the best option for everyone, especially if Tal was going to need her magical energy when she landed.

Penny had never been on a plane before and was happy that flying didn't seem to have the same effect on her. Also, she was glad for the privacy. After Parker and her friends had walked them through the spell (and left very detailed written directions, now safely stowed in Tal's purse), the trio had left them to pack for their cross-country trek. The three of them planned to talk with Uncle Marc before going back to Boston, since none of them knew much about the local political landscape, and good as Hardison seemed to be, most of Faerie didn't have the internet yet.

That thought made Penny smile. That was how she'd found Quentin. He didn't seem to have stayed in public school, like she had, but he'd been there long enough that it would have been strange to not have a Facebook, apparently. She'd searched it on a lark on day, just his first name of course, but it was uncommon enough that she could simply scroll through the list and look at photos until she found him. Even from there she hadn't been able to find much; his privacy permissions were sensible, and it wasn't as though she could actually friend him. That felt like it would be too close to breaking the rules.

She'd almost broken them a few months ago. It had been Quentin's 18th birthday, and even if it wasn't a milestone by fae standards, she'd wanted to acknowledge it in some way. She'd poked around, asked a few careful questions to the more well-traveled inhabitants of the knowe, and ended up with an address in San Francisco. The index card containing the address was now in her pocket. She'd stared at the card for days, trying to work up the nerve to do something with it. But in the end she decided that it simply wasn't worth the risk. Her parents had made the choices they made for good reason. She had to believe that.

Though now they were about to break all the rules. Even on her way to do so, thousands of feet in the air, Penny still couldn't quite decide if she felt like it was worth it. If Parker was successful, if these three amazing, ridiculous people she'd met the day before were really as good as they (and like half of her school) said they were, no one would want to wake the Count. Even if they did, no one would believe anything he had to say. Endangering Quentin couldn't possibly be worth it, could it? Not when things were already taken care of. But everything had been so _much_ lately. It felt like she was suffocating under the weight that was constantly on her chest.

Penny had spent the better part of a week thinking things through, before finally getting on that train to Boston yesterday. She'd thought that she knew the score, knew what she would be asking these people to do. If they had been human, it wouldn't technically be breaking Oberon's law. Tal could stop worrying and using what precious political sway she had to try and keep Count Edrenya asleep, Uncle Marc could go back to his projects and stop trying to strengthen the house wards when he thought they wouldn't notice. And maybe, Penny would be able to sleep again. It was a perfect solution.

It wasn't until their new friends had left, when Tal had sat her down for a talk, that things really came into perspective. She had been prepared to kill someone. Have them killed, sure, but it came to the same thing. Tal hadn't told her that she was wrong, to have wanted to do that, but she had wanted to make sure that Penny was fully thinking things through. And she was right; Penny hadn't considered the implications at all. No one, save the Duchess, knew who she was here. But fifteen years from now, when her fosterage ended? She would go back to the high court. Which was worse than high school, when it came to gossip and cattiness. If anyone had put things together, had found out what she'd done? The potential backlash on her parents, on her /brother/, she could barely stand to contemplate.

Tal didn't know any of this, of course. It wasn't that she was stupid, quite the contrary. She was just very careful about protecting Penny, and she felt that protecting her privacy was part of that. If she'd tried at all, she'd know exactly who Penny was, probably even faster than Hardison had. But she didn't want to know. And so when she worried about Penny wishing someone dead, it was a much simpler worry, a worry that was all about Penny’s moral well-being. It was interesting, having a conversation with so much unsaid. On the one hand, Tal was very clear about things, and told her several times that Penny couldn't do something like that. But she didn't say that the Count shouldn't be killed, just that Penny shouldn't do it. Which was interesting, and something else they should probably talk about later.

Later, when Penny wasn't so scared. Until she'd had her panic attack yesterday, she hadn't realized how afraid she had become. And loath as she was to make choices from a place of fear, it was that that made her continue to want to see this spell completed. Quentin had always made her feel safe, growing up. Since Tal had taken Penny into her family, she had also been a source of safety. Between the two of them, that had to be enough. And if what Eliot said about the spell was correct, it would mean that no one could try and take her away from them, ever again. Which would be worth it. It would have to be.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, actual October Daye characters finally showed up!   
> Also, I debated for a long time whether or not the Luidaeg would call herself that in her own POV chapter, but I couldn't decide what else to call her, so in the end I went with it.   
> Also also, apologies in advance if I've failed to understand Snapchat. Everything I know about it comes from my little sister.  
> Also the third, the movie discussion at the beginning is brought to you by the delightful post by words-writ-in-starlight about 'Legend of the Sword'.   
> Cheers, y'all.

"Oh I like her! Doesn't put up with any nonsense." The Luidaeg said appreciatively, leaning towards Quentin to grab another handful of popcorn.

"I want her cloak." Raj put in.

"It's a woman's cloak." Quentin said with raised eyebrows.

"Gendered clothing is for the Divided Courts. When everyone wears fur half the time, such things seem far less important." Raj replied in an aloof tone, tossing his head. Quentin rolled his eyes and started throwing popcorn at his friend.

"Behold, the future of the monarchy." said the Luidaeg in a tone filled with gravity, her eyes dancing in amusement. She didn't come over to Toby's house very often, but she also didn't have near as nice a TV as her niece did. Both May and Toby were having date night with their respective partners, and Quentin had asked if she wouldn't mind keeping him and Raj company. Which was a nice, diplomatic way of saying Toby was still spooked from Tybalt's near death during the conclave, and he wasn't sure they would actually go on their date if they realized it meant leaving him and Raj alone in the house. That boy was far too empathetic and thoughtful for his own good. He was going to make a very interesting king, one of these days. But no need to rush that. For now, it was just as well to collectively enjoy Charlie Hunnam's abs.

Just as that delicious mortal looked like he was about to take his shirt off again, there was a knock at the door. Raj grabbed the remote and paused the movie, unfortunately capturing only a transitional landscape and not some ridiculous facial expression. Quentin moved to get the door, setting his cup of soda down on the table as he went. The Luidaeg had no doubt he would be grabbing the baseball bat from the umbrella stand as he went by. It was early yet, since both pairs of lovebirds had wanted to go out into the mortal world on their little jaunts. Still, 8:30 pm was a bit late for unplanned visitors.

She and Raj both cocked their heads towards the door, not alarmed yet, but also not wanting to take any chances. It had been a trying couple of years. The Luidaeg felt like she hadn't had this much excitement in the past century, as she had since Toby first showed up at her door those few years ago.

The door opened, and whoever was on the other side spoke briefly. Their words were followed almost immediately by a crash of something dropping, but even has Raj and the Luidaeg sprang to their feet, they heard Quentin call out 'It's fine, it's fine, don't worry about it.’

The pair remained standing, looking at each other skeptically. Quentin seemed to be bringing whoever it was into the house, and indeed, moments later he walked back into the living room, bringing with him a pair of women. The first was short and stub-nosed, hair dark enough that one might almost miss the streaks of hunter green if they weren't looking. The Luidaeg could tell immediately that the woman wasn't one of hers, not directly, but she would always know the children of the sea on sight.

The other one though- she was younger than the Luidaeg had first realized, with hair a white-silver blonde, tipped in lavender. Beyond the purple, which the Luidaeg did not think was natural, she was unremarkable. But there was something about her face- abruptly the Luidaeg realized why Quentin looked like someone had slapped him with a fish.

"Are you going to introduce us to your sister?" she asked. Everyone in the room turned to her in surprise. Good. It did well to keep folks on their toes, remind them of just who she was from time to time.

"Of course. I'm sorry, I just- this is my sister, Penthea. Penny, this is Raj and-" here he broke off, realizing he wasn't sure how to introduce her. And it wasn't because he was worried what his sister would think of him, being friends with one of the First Born. No, he was growing more politically savvy, and he knew that it wasn't necessarily to the Luidaeg’s benefit to be associated with people as fragile as them. That and she liked her privacy.

"Anne," she said, giving a small nod of her head. Penny nodded back, and the part sea fae girl did too, but with a speculative look in her eye.

"And this is Tal," Penny said, gesturing to her friend. After brief acknowledgments of Raj and the Luidaeg, she had turned her gaze right back to her brother. He was looking at her too, and they both had soft smiles on their faces, though their eyes were veiled with caution. That was almost enough to break the Luidaeg's heart. They were far too young to be that careful around family. But she didn’t have to fret for long. After a few moments, it was as though something clicked, and Penny flung herself into Quentin's arms, hugging him for all she was worth. He lowered his face into her hair, and Raj was suddenly becoming very interested in the dark haired woman. If he was busy bothering her, his friend could have his tears in privacy.

"Why don't we get some tea on?" the Luidaeg said, moving towards the kitchen in a way that made it clear she expected to be followed. Tal went after her, and with her came Raj. Good. Let the siblings have a bit of their reunion to themselves, before they had to dig into whatever could have been important enough to cause the princess to break both her own blind fosterage and her brother's. Even once the kitchen door swung shut behind them, the Luidaeg simply started filling the kettle, waiting, interested to see how Tal would start off the conversation. She didn't have to wait long.

"So you're the one who's been taking care of Penny's brother?" she asked, slightly disbelieving. The Luidaeg smiled.

"Not really. This is Sir Daye's house, but she's out for the evening. And she has a bigger TV." At that Tal smiled. The Luidaeg knew that in her braids and overalls, she presently looked the same age as Quentin and Raj. And perhaps it was best to leave things at that, for now. Let Quentin tell his sister about the odd circles he ran in when he chose, and then let her decide how much to pass along.

Tal had leaned up against the far wall rather than taking a seat. It was a relaxed stance, but it left her more ready to move should she need to than sitting would have allowed. It also meant that Raj couldn't hover behind her, a fact that was clearly annoying the prince of cats, who was regrouping and finding another tactic.

"And what about you?" He finally asked, his voice light, yet still holding a tinge of feline distain. "You're taking care of Penny?" The name came easily from him, and it occurred to the Luidaeg that if Raj had known Quentin's true identity longer than most (and she believed that he had), perhaps the two of them had talked about his sister.

"I have been, yes." Tal said, looking at the young man laconically. Whether she had experience with cats or just with teenagers was difficult to say, but she seemed to be managing fine. "And you?" she said this with a subtle, speculative one-over, as though she was evaluating Raj as both a possible protector and a possible romantic partner for Quentin, and had yet to decide if he measured up in either respect. Definitely experienced with cats, the Luidaeg decided.

Raj bristled. "I'm his best friend. I know him better than anyone, certainly better than this sister, so-"

"But that's not either of their fault, is it?" Tal said gently, cutting him off before he could get too overexcited about anything.

Raj wrinkled his noise, sighing. "No, I suppose it isn't. The Divided Courts are crazy."

"Oh, don't we know it." she said, laughing a bit bitterly. There was a story there, but the Luidaeg doubted that circumstances were going to arrange themselves in a way for her to hear it.

The kitchen door opened and the siblings walked in, Quentin keeping his arm over Penny's shoulders as though he was worried she would be gone if he let up his hold. He looked around the room briefly, his gaze settling on Tal. "Penny said you could explain what you two are here for better than she could?"

Tal raised an eyebrow, looking at Penny. The pair held each other's gaze for a few long moments before the younger girl nodded, then laid her head against Quentin's shoulder.

"Alright. Well, the short version is that you and I," she gestured between herself and Quentin, "need to do a spell together. It will make it so other people can't get at Penny through her loyalty magic to try and control her, which I think we can both agree is a good thing, yes?" The Luidaeg narrowed her eyes. Loyalty magic was serious, dangerous stuff, but she hadn't heard of someone actually having to deal with the potential fallout of issues, not for centuries. The closest she'd come was after the kidnapping of the Lorden boys. She'd made sure their parents knew to keep both of them, but especially Peter, close for several weeks after. Dean was old enough that it wasn't really a concern, as had been demonstrated by his ability to hold off the pull of Evening's magic when she’d attacked at Goldengreen. His loyalty was to his mother, and to his people. While he may be new to his position, and unsure about a lot of things, he was clearly sure about that. 

For Penny's guardian to be attempting a spell of this caliber-

"How old was she?" The Luidaeg asked, bluntly. "How old was she when someone first interfered?" Penny shrunk further against Quentin, who tightened his arm around her and looked at the Luidaeg questioningly. 

Tal simply sighed. "Ten. There was some sort of issue, she was sent to fosterage early, it was a whole thing. And don't think I won't be giving their parents an earful about that, when I finally meet them."

"Tal, we've talked about this-" Penny started to protest. Tal turned her way, raising a hand to cut her off

"No, I know we've talked about this. And if you forgive them, that's one hundred percent your prerogative, and I support that. But I don't have to agree. They were morons, you got hurt, I'm just gonna die mad about it, it's cool." It was interesting that for all the words coming from her mouth were charged, she didn't say them with heat. They were said as though they were facts of life, and part of a conversation that had been had many times before.

Raj had a sly smile on his face, clearly happy that he wasn't the only one who thought poorly of Quentin's parents. Quentin himself looked aghast, and the Luidaeg could see him reminding himself that the woman clearly didn't know who they were. If his sister had managed to keep that secret where he hadn't, the Luidaeg didn't think he would do anything to change that.

"I have _several_ more questions." Quentin said instead, not bothering to keep the displeasure from his voice. Tal looked as though she was about to say something, but it was Penny who spoke next.

"But you don't need answers, really. Not right now. I'll tell you, I promise. Just- not right now, okay?" she looked so earnest that the Luidaeg was hardly surprised when Quentin reluctantly nodded.

"How?" Raj asked, drawing the room's attention to him. "I assume you two are going back from whence you came once this spell is finished. How to you plan to tell him?" It was a valid question, but at least someone had considered it before.

"Snapchat." Tal said immediately. "It won't look out of place on either of your phones, and there's no trail that way." She looked at Quentin speculatively. "You do have a phone, right?" This caused Penny to let out a ring of honest laughter, which made Quentin relax somewhat.

"Of course I have a phone, what do you think this is?" he grumbled, snagging the device from his pocket so Penny could put her information into it.

"Well if that's settled, why don't you let me look over this spell?" The Luidaeg asked. Tal looked at her questioningly, having clearly pegged her as one of the boy's teenage friends. The Luidaeg simply held her gaze, letting a small bit of her true self bleed through in her eyes. Not everything. This girl may not be one of her children, but she was still close enough that the full force of the Luidaeg's magic would have had her on her knees.

What she did see made Tal straighten, bowing her head slightly and saying "Yes ma'am, of course," as she brought the spell papers out of her bag.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really need to find a reason to write Raj more, ride or die Raj is my favorite.

Quentin leaned back against the couch. It had been a long evening, and it was barely after midnight. May and Jazz had arrived home an hour ago, but gone directly to their room, not pausing long enough to notice the guests in the kitchen. Toby and Tybalt were still out, unless they had taken the Shadow Roads directly to Toby's bedroom. And that was as far as he was willing to take _that_ train of thought.

Still, the long night had been entirely worth it. He'd gotten to see his sister again! He'd thought he would never lay eyes on her until they were both adults. Even these six years felt like an eternity. There had been a time when he would have said he knew Penny better than she knew herself, and certainly no one knew him as well as she. Now? Snapchat would be better than nothing, but it felt like they had so much lost time to make up for. He was a very different person than he had been when he left Toronto. Before meeting Toby, before Blind Michael's lands, before befriending a Prince of Cats and traveling to Deeper Faerie. Before he'd met Dean.

Thinking about this last made him blush a bit. He'd expected questions about his social life and circles, and he knew they would come. But first the pair of them needed to learn how to be around each other again, and that, clearly, was going to take time.

And time was certainly something they would have. Once all three of those necessary for the spell had been in the same place, the spell had been fairly simple, and the Luidaeg had confirmed that it would do what whoever had been helping Penny and Tal had told them it would. Quentin still didn't think he fully understood. She was his baby sister, of course he wanted her protected from everything. But why that had even been in question, and why Penny had looked so incredibly relieved when the spell was completed, was still unclear. She'd promised she would tell him, explain everything. But later. They needed to go back to their home Duchy as soon as possible. The fewer people who knew that they had come, the safer it would be.

Quentin had to agree with that part, though perhaps not in the way that they thought. Tal seemed like a nice person, and she obviously cared very much about Penny and keeping her safe. But she didn't know who they were, or more importantly, who their parents were. She was also a minor, untitled mixed-blood in service at a Duchy. Upper service, certainly. But there didn't seem to be anything, no great deeds or powerful friends, for her to call on if their parents decided that Penny should be taken away. They weren't even worried about it; with the reluctance that their parents had shown to visit, even during an unspecified emergency, it would never occur to Penny that they might just show up. And to be entirely fair, they hadn't 'just shown up' in the Mists, either. But when they had, Toby had been enough for them to decide not to take him away. Quentin worried that Tal wouldn't be, if it came to it.

"What are you thinking, kiddo?" the Luidaeg asked, coming to sit on the other end of the sofa. Raj had shifted to cat form, and was pacing along the tops of the cushions. It took Quentin a moment to decide what his real question was.

"Could you explain loyalty magic to me? You mentioned it, and Tal did, but you didn't actually explain it." He turned his full attention to her, in time to see the Luidaeg grow slightly tense. "Not that you have to, if you don't want." he added in a rush. "It's just a question, and if you don't want to talk about it we can just finish the movie."

He hated the way most people treated the Luidaeg. Hated that he'd treated her that way, when Katie had gone missing. People acted like she was a vending machine, and didn't care what she wanted. Oh, not Toby. Toby was the Luidaeg's friend, just like he was. But it was a fine line to walk, and he wanted to make sure he stayed on the right side of it.

"It's fine, kiddo. Not that kind of question. It's just complicated." she sighed, clearly looking for a place to begin. "You were twelve, when you were sent into fosterage, right?" at his nod she continued. "That's young you know. When Dean and Peter went missing, their parents had just started talking about finding a fosterage for Dean. And there's a reason being older is more typical for fosterage." the Luidaeg seemed to be considering what she said next very carefully. Raj had stopped his pacing, and was perched on the cushion behind Quentin, front paws resting on his shoulder.

"You didn't have a very high opinion of changelings, when you first came here, did you?" And she knew the answer to that, obviously, or she wouldn't even be asking. Quentin’s face twisted in shame, but without waiting for an answer, the Luidaeg continued. "So why, after meeting her only a few times, did you start following around the realm’s only changeling knight? There were certainly more appropriate choices." Quentin shrugged uncomfortably. He didn't like thinking about how he'd acted back then, how stuck up he'd been. Raj kneaded Quentin’s shoulder with his paws, and he relaxed slightly.

"I mean I guess there were, but none of them really talked to me, outside of training. Toby talked to me like I was a person, just because I was there. And she's a good leader, even if she doesn't think that. She makes you want to follow her, she feels- safe, I guess." He'd never tried to put it into words before, and now that he was it did sounded strange, even though he'd been there for the whole process.

The Luidaeg smiled slightly. "Exactly. Normally she wouldn't have this much pull, as a changeling. Maybe it's a Dochas Sidhe thing, or maybe it's because Amy's Firstborn. But either way, Toby can pull on people's loyalty. She doesn't do it on purpose, and it's mostly a consequence of her being a good leader, you're not wrong about that. But Quentin, think about it. Four years ago you barely knew her, and now you'd follow her into the fire realms."

"I'm her squire, it's my job." he said, automatically. "And anyway, she always tries to make me stay out of it if she's going somewhere dangerous."

"Yes, of course she does. It comes back to her being a good person. But Quentin, that's what I mean. You were young, and you needed someone to hold your loyalty. Your magic found her. There's nothing wrong with that. It was natural, organic, neither of you forced anything. Things like that happen all the time. Bonds forged in childhood and whatnot. Why do you think you and Raj are so close? Why do you think Toby is still so close with Stacy, even when they've taken completely different paths in life?" Quentin took a deep breath. Okay, that made sense. And if what the Luidaeg was saying was true (and it always was), then it wasn't a problem. Which left only one question.

"So what does this have to do with what's wrong with Penny?" He asked.

"That's the real problem, isn't it? Loyalty is usually held by the family, at a young age, or by friends of the same age. Sometimes other people will step in, but in a similar way. Toby's your knight now, so she's a bad example, but what would you say May's relationship to you is?"

Quentin thought about it for a second. "If we're talking about family?" The Luidaeg nodded. "I mean I guess she and Jazz are my aunts? We usually tell people that, when we're out in the mortal world. Toby too." Quentin blushed. He'd definitely referred to her as his mom a couple of times, when his mortal friends had asked about the brunette who picked him up from the movies. But no one else had to know that.

"Yes, exactly." said the Luidaeg. "And if someone wants to connect more deeply than friends, but doesn't want to connect to someone else as family, there's another type of loyalty." At Quentin's confusion, she pressed. "You call Raj your brother. That's familial loyalty." At this Raj rubbed his cheek in Quentin's hair. "What sort of loyalty would you say you have to Dean?" Raj's face lifted as they both turned to the Luidaeg sharply. She met their gaze.

"But- that doesn't make any- She was ten! She couldn’t- And anyway, she knows better than that!" Quentin protested. The Luidaeg couldn't possibly be implying what he thought she was. Quentin knew that she'd spoken with Tal a bit while he was introducing Penny to Raj, but it couldn't have been about that, he simply refused to entertain the idea.

"Yes she was, and of course it wasn’t right. But do you truly think it would have been difficult?" When Quentin just looked sick, she continued. "Toby was one of the first people here to single you out as special, and to talk to you like you weren't a child. For that you gave her your loyalty. Can you tell me, can you truly tell me, that you wouldn't have agreed if she had pressed for more?" Quentin clenched and unclenched his hands, shaking slightly. Raj shifted back to human, jumps as he went, to land on two feet in front of the couch.

"Are you saying that Tal has been-" he said in angry indignation

"Of course not." The Luidaeg interrupted "Do you honestly think she'd have left here alive if that were the case?" She kept intent eye contact with Raj until the prince of cats looked away. "There was a noble at the Duchy where Penny is fostered. Tal was the one to find out and get Penny away from him. In the process, he was elf shot." She let the last part hang, and it didn't take long for Quentin to realize why it would have become relevant now.

"They want to wake him up. Because of the conclave. Because we helped Walther make the cure." Penny was in danger again, and it was his fault.

"Stop that." Surprisingly it was Raj who spoke up. "You and Toby and my uncle did a world of good in Silences. None of this changes that." Raj turned to the Luidaeg. "You know who it was. What's his name?" he looked back at Quentin "Text Chelsea. If she's awake we could leave tonight." The Luidaeg sat forward.

"Hang on, kitty cat. You don't even know where you're going."

"But you do." Raj looked at her expectantly.

"You can't murder a member of the Divided Courts. Either of you. It's being taken care of, and on that, you'll just have to trust me." She stared them down, pinning them with her gaze. Quentin wanted to protest. He wanted to fight, to scream, to do something useful. But he held the Luidaeg's eye instead, losing himself for a few moments in the fathomless depths of someone who had seen empires rise and fall. She'd seen everything, seen more leaders than he could ever hope to, met better people than he could ever hope to be. If she said this was right, he had to trust her.

"Okay,” he took a deep breath, nodding slightly to her. “Okay. We aren't going anywhere, Raj." He pulled the other boy's arm, until Raj gave in and went down, sprawling across his lap. He still looked as mutinous and murderous as Quentin felt, and somehow, that made it okay. He could make the decision that was for the best, even if he didn't like it, because he knew that he would be supported no matter which was he chose. And that was what made it truly a choice, and not an illusion of compounded obligations.

The front door opened, and Toby and Tybalt came through, laughing. They'd clearly had a nice night, which was well deserved. They didn't get enough nice, quiet nights. The pair came into the living room and stopped. Tybalt clearly read Raj's tension. Toby, for her part, was visibly smelling the air... Of course. He and Tal had cast the spell in here, together. He wasn't sensitive enough to tell, but Toby would always know when strange people had been doing magic in her house.

"Interesting night?" She asked, eyes flicking between the three of them before landing on Quentin. Of course. He was her squire, it was his job to report in. But just this once...

"Yeah, it was. But can we talk about it later?" He asked, shifting around to look at her fully, ignoring Raj's squawk as the move caused him to slide from Quentin's lap. Toby looked at him carefully. She wasn't stupid, she knew something was bothering him. But she also knew how careful he was with secrets. He'd kept things from her, certainly. But never things that were about her, and never if keeping the secret meant putting her in danger. Which put him at least a few steps above most other folk in the Mists who didn't tell her things.

"Alright. If you're sure there's nothing I need to know." she said, in a tone that didn't sound like it was prying so much as it was leaving room for him to talk if he wanted, reminding him that she would be here, that she cared. There weren't too many things Quentin felt he could fully count on in life, but this was one of them. The sun rose and set, the Luidaeg was always right, and, perhaps most importantly, Toby loved him. Standing, he came around the edge of the couch. He knew this would only invite more questions later, and he'd probably even answer them then. But right now, he needed this. He pulled Toby into a hug, which she returned readily, if with some confusion.

"Thank you," he whispered in her ear, tucking his forehead against her shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to note that Quentin is of course wrong when he says 'she should have known better'. The Luidaeg smacks him for this pretty effectively in the text, but because this is a sensitive topic, I want to be clear; in no respect do children who are groomed by predators bear any responsibility. The responsibility is on the adults.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading. The writing of this story has been much more meaningful than I meant it to be, and I'm glad that putting thoughts to paper has been helpful. I hope that perhaps it came also be helpful to someone else.

"Hey, Tal?" Lysander asked, poking his head through her office door, where she sat working on menu planning for the following month. There were two planned visits of nobles, both of which involved dinners, and since the local nobles attending would be the same, she couldn't cheat and do the same menu for both.

"What? And if you're here to tell me that someone else has dietary restrictions, I don't want to hear about it." she replied, looking up from her computer in annoyance. At least she had Excel now, that had been saving her life recently.

"No, no, it's about Edrenya." Tal snapped to attention. It had been a week since she and Penny returned from San Francisco. Things had been better, for Penny at least, because she felt secure in the fact that the count wouldn't be able to control her again. She was also able to distract herself with becoming reacquainted to her brother. So really, things were going swimmingly. But Tal had also not heard anything from Hardison and his friends regarding whatever else they had been planning. She'd texted the number on the card Hardison had given her, letting him know that the spell had been a success, but hadn't received any response.

"What about him? Are they waking him up?" Lysander was one of the guards who had been present that awful night six years ago, and so knew all about her reasons for being invested in the man remaining asleep.

"No, no I can definitely say they are not doing that. I'm just sort of wondering what you did, to be honest." he sounded pleased but baffled.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. As far as anyone knew, she and Penny had taken a day’s trip out into the countryside, ostensibly so Tal could have Penny work on her don’t-look-here spells as they drove. To anyone who knew the situation it came across as something Tal had done to separate Penny from the Edrenya situation for a bit. But nothing had been a direct action against anyone in the knowe, prisoner or otherwise. It simply wasn't something that Tal could risk, in her position.

A part of Tal, one that she never tried to encourage, insisted that it didn't matter. The people in her life were the most important thing to her, and she would do anything to keep them safe. Which was true. She just also recognized that keeping a position that put her close to those in power was often the best way to keep them safe.

"How long have you been locked up in your office?" Lysander asked in wonder. "Everybody is talking about it."

"Well I'm obviously not. What happened?" she asked again, with increasing impatience.

"You know the delegation that's reviewing the cases of all those currently elf-shot in the kingdom?" at Tal's nod, he continued. "They came upon some information about the Count. He was part of some sort of group that was taking actions that could have exposed Faerie to the mortals, using them in assassination plots and such. The details are unclear but- whatever it is, it's got people saying he's lucky the Duchess just had him elf-shot, not sent to the iron tree. The rest of this group was caught and either imprisoned or executed several years ago." Tal just stared at him, agape. He returned her look with a bit of genuine surprise. "You really didn't know? Well, either way, I'm glad for you, and for Penny. I guess I should let you get back to your spreadsheets?"

Tal nodded mutely, and Lysander left, shutting the door behind him. She sat there for a moment, just staring into space. Finally, she started laughing; pure, relieved, laughter. Pulling out her phone, she sent another text to the number Hardison had given her. ' _You and yours do amazing work. I truly appreciate it_.'

A few moments later, her phone chimed. ' _You're welcome, 😉_ ' the response read.

Still smiling, she went back to her menu planning.


End file.
